Discord proposal
Hi everyone, Discord is the current number one of collaborative messaging platforms and many Wookieepedians, me included, have already adopted Discord. The creation of a Wookieepedia Discord server has been discussed before, in February 2018, and many were opposed at that time. However, two years have elapsed and Discord's rise has continued while IRC's decline only seems to be accelerating. Thus, I believe it is time for a renewed discussion. The biggest selling point of this proposal is the fact that a bot can relay messages between IRC and Discord, allowing both platforms to co-exist and supplement each other. A Wookieepedia Discord server is by Wookieepedians for Wookieepedians. It is not meant to become a generic Star Wars discussion platform. This is not a push for more social media. Comparison Pros *'Userbase': Discord has around 250 million monthly users (May 2019), compared to IRC, with the top 10 networks combining for a total of around 200,000 concurrent online users. **freenode, the IRC network that Wookieepedia uses, has around 90,000 users online at any given moment. *'Accessibility': I wouldn't call IRC hard to use, but there is definitely more of a learning curve compared to Discord. Also, Discord has an official desktop and mobile client. *'Server structure': Discord's server structure allows us a very flexible setup where access and permissions can be assigned based on roles. **This is to some extent doable on IRC, but there are no "channel groups" among other things on IRC. *'IRC relay': A bot will be used to relay messages between IRC and Discord, thus allowing users to participate from whichever implementation they desire. Cons *'Proprietary software': This is, for an idealist, the biggest con of Discord. IRC and its implementations are completely open source software. **Accessing Discord requires the creation of an account with Discord Inc., an American company, and the usage of Discord's closed-source clients. Freenode, on the other hand, is an implementation of the IRC protocol and can be accessed with any IRC client. **Mofferences are worth considering. It can be argued that it is unethical to require Wookieepedians to utilize closed-source applications to participate in community discussions. *'Userbase': The lack of a learning curve and widespread usage will inevitably lead to more users, and thus more noobs. **This is why I suggesting limiting most channels to verified Wookieepedians. *'Nuku-Nuku': Our beloved IRC bot, Nuku-Nuku, only exists on IRC. Considerations *'Mofferences': It is unethical to require Wookieepedians to use closed-source software to participate in community discussions. *'The decline of IRC': Adopting Discord would most likely lead to an even faster decline of IRC. Possible server structure *'Wookieepedia' (channel group) **'#info': read-only channel that will contain sort of a welcome message for new users (think of it as a /topic, except for an entire server) **'#social': the lobby for newcomers. Users would be restricted to this channel until they're verified as being Wookieepedians. Relayed to IRC #wookieepedia-social. **'#wookieepedia': the main channel of the server. Open to all verified Wookieepedians. Relayed to IRC #wookieepedia. *'Star Wars' (channel group) **'#canon': channel for discussing the Canon continuity. **'#legends': channel for discussing the Legends continuity. **'#spoilers': channel for discussing content with spoilers. Relayed to IRC #wookieepedia-spoilers. *'Administration' (channel group) **'#admin-help': can be used to ask help from administrators. **'#administrators': private channel for administrators